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* Report: July 15th, 2023: The Belgians Parade to the London Cenotaph *

RAF aircraft's crash sites in Province of Hainaut:
Warneton

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Last update: 25/06/23


Elegy to
the Heroes of Silence


* To the 59 Squadron *
* To the crew of R3613 *
* To the monument erected in remembrance *
* Cemetery where rest the crew *

Crash site of Blenheim R3613
26/05/1940

aircraft
cest raf squadron
Unit: 59 Squadron
Aircraft: Blenheim
Code: R3613
Base:
Mission: Recce
Crew officer: P/O SHAW RICHARG ERNEST
Incident: Shot down by German fighter

Location: (Prov. Hainaut)

crash

Facts

Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV R3613 (TR-B) 59 Squadron, RAF: Written off (presumed destroyed) when lost (failed to return) for combat operations over Belgium on 26 May 1940. Aircraft crashed at Warneton, Belgium, and all three crew were killed. According to the official Air Ministry file on the incident (File AIR 81/583): "Blenheim R3613 crashed at Warneton, Belgium, 26 May 1940. Sergeant G L Schwind, Aircraftman 2nd Class A C Brogan and Pilot Officer R E Shaw: report of deaths"
Reportedly shot down by enemy fighters, and crashed at Dussen-Warneton, near the River Bergsche Mass, Province of Hainaut.
Unusually, one of the three crew was not only buried in a different cemetery to the two other crew members, he was also buried in a completely different country. The explanation for this seems to have been that the body of P/O Richard E Shaw was exhumed post war from Warneton (Waasten) Communal Cemetery in Belgium, on the request of his next of kin, so that he could be buried next to the body of his brother, Squadron Leader John Leslie Shaw, who had been killed in DH Mosquito NS950, between Dussen and Hank in Holland during the night of 5-6/6/1944. He was shot down by a German night fighter at 02:32hrs. His navigator Sgt Philip Stanley-Smith, was killed too
The reported crash location of Warneton is a section of the Belgian municipality of Comines-Warneton in Wallonia in the province of Hainaut, Belgium, at approximate co ordinates 50°45′0″ N, 2°57′0″ E.

Sources:
Aviation Safe
The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)
Aircrew Remembered
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